Hack X Factor
by Sitaneu
Summary: Taking place 4 years after .Hack// GU, there's a whole new terror on the loose, one that CC Corp themselves created. An intricate story line, watch nine new characters rebel against the system itself. First "chp" is a longer summary. Real chp 1 is up!
1. Chapter 1

_Mystery and Magic! Warriors and Legends! It all continues in the World: X__2__!_

Four years after the AIDA incident. Four years after the Anti-Existence, Cubia, threatened to destroy the 'Net, again. And still CC Corp holds almost all rights to the 'Net. And what had they done with it? Well, create an MMORPG called "the World", and almost everybody in the world plays it.

After Haseo, the Terror of Death, saved the Net from both AIDA and Cubia, he had been given a different character class by Zelkova, the leader of Moon Tree. CC Corp didn't have enough guts to try to ban the Hero, and instead upgraded the World into X2, adding two classes, many new abilities, more items, and a root town.

Now let us travel into the digital world, and begin a new story.

This is .Hack// X Factor.


	2. Meetings and Beatings

**Author's Note: I do NOT own .Hack at all in any way shape or form. The only things that belong to me are the characters and some of the ideas at are portrayed here. That's it! Now enjoy the story, 'cause this is the disclaimer for the entire series.  
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Level 1// Meetings and Beatings

The Eternal City was always busy. It didn't matter what level of character you were, you always found yourself in Mac Anu. It looked like the sun was just about to set over the port city as a new player walked out of the Chaos Gate, testing the new M2D-P. CC Corp had truly out done themselves this time with the technology that controlled the PC's movements. The M2D-P used the brain wave, which were electrical impulses, to control the facial and body movement. It made the reaction time quicker, and opened up a whole new range of motions.

The new player, a girl with brilliant aqua color eyes and copper hair, grinned as she did a back hand spring, landing nimbly on her feet, before standing with her back straight, brushing away the virtual dust, and running off to explore the root town.

Players traded with other players. Parties were gathered before they went off into adventure areas, and quests were distributed according to rank. The faint buzz of the chats drifted into the girl's ears, and she saw the world through her PC's eyes.

Kazu, as her name was in the World, wore clothes that looked much like those of an Adept Rogue's, even though she was an entirely different class. Decked out in black, white, and blue, the Dual Gunner drew almost no attention as she walked past the other vividly clad PC's.

The Dual Gunner class, originally designed by Zelkova, was added when the World upgraded. It wasn't a popular class, and those who mastered it were rare. One of the reasons for it was because the dual guns themselves were so god awfully expensive. In contrast, the Adept Rogue class, once considered the "jack of all trades, master of none" job, had gained considerable popularity since the Terror of Death had defeated all three of the Emperors. But that's a story for another time. The other job that was added was the Long Arm class. Those who chose this used a staff with blades attached to the ends. That class also had a much better reception, considering the staff could also form into a cudgel at the user's will, and it was much cheaper.

She walked over to the quest desk, not wanting to stay a level 1 forever. Most of the time, quests were just grunt work, and that's exactly what Kazu needed. The NPC that gave out said quests kept rattling on and on about how a huge monster was terrorizing beginning players and it needed to be destroyed. Kazu accepted half way through, took the area words, and ran to the stores to stock up on supplies. After that, she ran to the Chaos Gate and transported to the field.

The field was grassy, edged by water and the sun was at its pinnacle. Monsters roamed, circling around chests and other items. Some looked like little gnomes, others like flightless avians, and then there were these little flying objects that swooped around the other monsters' heads.

Kazu took all this in with big eyes. She was a first timer in the World, and this blew all her expectations away. "So all I have to do is find the big bad guy and the quest is finished, huh?" She murmured. "Well, that doesn't mean that I can't clean out the field while I'm at it…" With a wicked grin, she jumped into the field, ready to test out her new PC.

The flying objects were the easiest to beat; all Kazu had to do was aim and fire. They didn't even fight back! The gnomes were a bit different to deal with. She could attack them head on and risk them blocking, or spin around and try to shoot them in the back.

Kazu had still yet to face an avian when she spotted another player. He was an Adept Rogue from the look of it, and was using a huge sword to attack the avian. The funny thing was, he was _missing_. Waving the sword back and forth, the momentum caused him to swing around in a circle, completely missing the monster.

Kazu watched for a few seconds before literally jumping right in, flipping up onto the monster's back and resting her guns on the base of its neck. She fired off a round and it dissipated right in front of the Adept Rogue.

"Looks like you needed a bit of help." Kazu grinned. "Thanks for the XP."

The Adept Rogue's name was displayed right above his PC's head. '_Baby Jynx… that's the same name as my RP buddy off of Gaia…"_ She thought, studying the name.

"I didn't need help!" Baby Jynx said gruffly before adding, "It's Jynx. I couldn't figure out what I wanted it to be."

Kazu nodded. "Well, I'd tell you mine, but you can already see it." '_That looks like the last monster in the field except for the boss… 'kay… time to do or die.'_ The Dual Gunner thought as she scanned the field, but just as she had figured, it had been cleaned out.

Meanwhile, Jynx was getting uncomfortable in the silence. '_Kazu… well I've seen that name a whole hell of a lot on Gaia, but it's always OkamiKazu…_' He studied the PC of the girl in front of him. She had her back turned, but there was the short copper hair she was so famous for, and didn't she have those aqua eyes? The markings on her face and arms… the looked familiar… he had seen Kazu's drawings of her dream character. The similarities were just too much. Hell! Even her attitude was the same! Cocky, confident, and extremely smart in battle; Jynx had seen her fight for barely 20 seconds, and already he had figured it out.

Kazu turned back to Jynx. Dark skin, blue eyes; hair so dark it seemed to be a midnight purple in the light… and an '_I can be so much better than you'_ personality.

At the same time, both of them realized who they were talking to, and connected the dots. Jynx asked first. "You don't… have an account on Gaia… do you?"

"Yeah… it's OkamiKazu there…" Both of them looked at each other with big eyes.

"Kazu?!"

"Jynx?!"

"Dude, that's so weird!" Both of them yelled, pointing their index fingers at each other in recognition.

Kazu stopped. There was a short pause before a ringing laughter filled the field. "This is so creepy! First day in the World, and I've already ran into someone I knew. First day! Hundreds of thousands of people play the World!" The PC hunched over and held her stomach.

Jynx snickered when Kazu's laughter had finally died down. "What made you choose to be a Dual Gunner? You do know how much they suck, right?"

"Two guns with blades attached to them? Can't get any better than that. What about you? An Adept Rogue? I bet you only chose that because Haseo took over the three Arenas as one!"

"You caught me. Still, a Dual Gunner? HA!"

"Shut up! At least I'm not a jack of all trades, master of none!"

There was another long pause. They both watched each other's facial expression, gauging their mood.

"First one to find the boss monster and win…" Jynx started.

"…Is the winner…" Kazu finished, mouth breaking out into a smirk.

"Just my type of challenge!" Jynx yelled, running off and going left.

Kazu gave one final barking laugh before dashing off to the right.

It was always the same. Ever since they had met on Gaia two years ago, there was always the question, "Who was stronger?" In RP's, Kazu proved though wit and strategy; Jynx was unpredictable, catching people off guard time and again. When they met on the battlefield of words, people would actually stop all posting to watch their battle. Now that that rivalry had been transferred into the World, there was little chance that either was going back to Gaia.

Jynx walked up onto a bluff to scan the area. No monsters in front of him. None on either side. It seemed that the data had yet to reset, luckily for the Adept Rogue. Turning on his heel, he spun around and saw a huge Cyclops behind one of the bluffs, and Kazu, who had no idea it was there, running _right towards it_. It was at this point in time when Jynx finally remembered something. The Dual Gunner, who was about to win the competition, had stupidly good luck with things she had no control over. And even though he knew she would hear him, he bellowed, "Not fair!" for good measure.

Kazu, in the meantime, was snickering. Jynx had ran in the completely wrong direction. She had just come from the left, going right, and hadn't seen the boss anywhere. Then again, he hadn't noticed what direction she had come from when she stole his kill; for all he knew she just fell out of the sky. She was just about to turn the corner around a bluff when she stopped.

All of a sudden, there was a tremor in the earth. Then a roar. A gigantic Cyclops was running right at her, and she hadn't even noticed. Kazu shivered; whether in anticipation or fright, she didn't know. But, with her trademark smirk in place, she raised her guns, got into a fighting stance, and murmured, "Sorry Jynx. Looks like I win this round…"

Jumping to the side and rolling to recover, Kazu let the Cyclops rampage past her. Turning, she shot off a few rounds, but the beast was too far away; it didn't do much damage, in other words. Still smirking, Kazu mentally patted herself on the back. '_Glad I went to the shops. Now it's time to use those three things I picked up…_' She thought, taking from her inventory a Speed Charm, Knight Seal, and Warrior Blood. She invoked the Speed Charm and Warrior Blood on herself, giving her a boost in both the attack stats and speed stats. The Knight Seal she used on the Cyclops, lowering its defenses. All this was done while she was frantically trying to dodge any and every attack the monster was throwing at her. It was at this point that Kazu ran underneath it to escape the fists, and got another brilliant idea.

The idea consisted of two words, one called 'up', and the other called 'shoot'. So, Kazu stopped, aimed up, and shot the monster while she was underneath it. The closer range, along with the boosted attack power did a considerable amount of damage, but then the monster swung at her, making her fly backwards and taking a sizeable chunk out of her HP.

"Damn it…" The Dual Gunner cursed, using yet another item, this time a Healing Drink, to restore her HP. She stood up, shot off all eight rounds out of both guns into the monster, and spun around to try to get behind it when it charged at her. As it passed, Kazu reloaded and fired again; this time all the bullets hit it in the head.

With one final roar, the Cyclops collapsed into the ground and dissipated like all monsters did when they were defeated. Kazu grabbed the items that were floating around the battleground before checking her stats and grinning like an idiot at what she saw. She had leveled up twice while in the field, and was on the verge of leveling up again. "Level 3. Booyah!" She pumped her fist up into the air.

Jynx walked up muttering under his breath. He had lost this time to Kazu's luck. The next time, she wasn't going to be so lucky, he promised himself. Grumbling, like he often did when he lost, he spoke. "So what? You've always had better luck than me."

Still jubilant from her victory, Kazu patted him on the back, saying, "Ah, it's okay. I had just come in the direction you went in, is all. You ran off before I thought to tell you."

The Adept Rogue narrowed his eyes at her, but decided not to retaliate. It would be the exact reaction she would expect out of him. So, Jynx decided he was going to be rational, and think before he spoke. What he came up with was, "Well, now, thanks to your luck, I get to hang around for the data to reset before I get to finish the quest. How about we exchange member addresses and I catch up with you later?" he asked.

Kazu, who wasn't used to Jynx acting rationally, especially after he lost, took a minute to respond. "Sure, though I have to get off after I report back to the quest desk. Places to go, people to see. You know, the works."

Jynx flashed a grin. He had caught her off guard. Small victory for him, and it was going to bug Kazu for a while. "Okay, then. How about I bring a couple of friends tomorrow and we meet up at the fountain in Mac Anu?"

"Who're you bringing?" Kazu asked suspiciously.

"You know them. Our jacked up RP family? Yeah, they play. I have their member addresses, so it won't be a problem getting a hold of them." Though Jynx had won that little victory, he didn't push it. Now Kazu was on guard; it wouldn't be easy to win, and it would be foolish to try.

"Got it. PM me when you get on, 'cause I won't be hanging around in the root town for long." Kazu said, the smirk back on her face. It was a great mask, she had learned. But Jynx had also learned that it meant that Kazu was plotting something. What, he didn't know, and it bothered him.

They exchanged the addresses, and Kazu gave one last wave before running off to the Chaos Gate. One thing she loved about the world was that she could constantly run everywhere, do anything, and her real body didn't feel a thing.

Meanwhile, Jynx was standing in the middle of the field, waiting for the boss monster to show up again.

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**Kazu: So, how'd I end up with a shortened version of your pen name?**

**Author: Uh, I had a complete lack of imagination coming up with your name.**

**Jynx: How come I sound so weak and wimpy?! I got beaten by her! *Points finger at Kazu***

**Author: Because it's just the beginning of the story and everybody is weak. Give me a few chapters already! The real reason for the story will start within the next three chapters. It's no fun to write about weak players. **

**Kazu: Yeah! What she said. Hey, are we ever going to get to meet Haseo?????**

**Jynx: Oh no, not the hero worship thing again…**

**Author: Just stick around for a bit. All of our lovely GU characters will probably make an appearance, and you're going to have the time of your life.**

**Kazu: YAYS!**

**Author: Remember to review! Authors like me love reviews. Oh, and if you flame, expect a flame from me. I don't like people who choose to be mean for no reason!**


End file.
